Amrut Single Cask Bengal Tiger (Canada)

Amrut is a major Indian whisky maker and exporter. Like many world whisky enthusiasts, I have previously enjoyed their batched expressions of cask-strength Sherry and Port-matured whiskies (e.g. Intermediate Sherry and Portonova). I am therefore naturally curious to see what their single cask offerings are like.

Starting off a series of three reviews is a single cask Amrut known as “Bengal Tiger” (or “Bangalore Tiger”), due to the distinctive label. This single cask whisky was specifically chosen by the distillery’s Brand Ambassador for the Canadian market. It was matured in an ex-bourbon cask before finishing in a Pedro Ximenez (PX) Sherry cask. Exclusively bottled for Canada, I’ve only seen this for sale in Alberta and B.C, where it ranges between $120 and $195 CAD. There are still some bottles around for sale at the higher price.

The bottle label identifies that unpeated Indian malt went into cask (presumably the ex-bourbon cask) in June 2009. It was bottled in April 2015, in 540 bottles at 56.5% ABV. The label identifies the final cask as PX Sherry, cask 2701 (presumably the finishing cask). So that makes this whisky 5 years and 10 months old – but it is not reported how long it was held in each cask.

But a bit of online sleuthing can help us narrow it down. It turns out that cask 2701 was previously released in 2013 as a single cask PX Sherry expression (see for example reviews by My Annoying Opinions and Michael of Diving for Pearls). Bottled at 62.8%, the label for that expression indicates it was also filled in June 2009 – but bottled in August 2013 (making it 4 years 2 months old). So assuming they immediately refilled it with the whisky from the Bengal Tiger ex-bourbon cask, the most it could have spent in the second-fill (or later) PX Sherry cask 2701 is 1 year and 8 months. Of course, that is an upper limit – that 2701 cask could been used to “finish” other whiskies before getting Bengal Tiger (i.e., it may be a later refill, with even less time in the barrel).

The point is that this is clearly a second-fill (or later) PX cask, with limited time in contact with the whisky. As such, you are not likely to find as heavy a sherry presence in this whisky as other pure PX cask-aged Amruts.

Here are how the various cask-strength Amrut whiskies compare in my Meta-Critic Database:

With the caveat that there are few reviews so far, the Amrut Bengal Tiger gets a respectable score for a single cask expression.

My sample of Bengal Tiger came from Redditor Devoz. Note that for this review I had not looked up the above information beforehand – I sampled this whisky blind to previous reviews and scores, and have only added it to my database after the fact.

Colour: Medium gold, light brown.

Nose: Honey. Caramel and chocolate (plus cocoa powder). Touch of darker fruits (sultanas, some cherry), but dried, and not very fruity overall. Light wood spices, nutmeg mainly, and some more exotic Indian spices (cumin?). Doesn’t seem like it was a very long finishing in PX (and it is a bit shy overall). There are some mixed solvent smells (a little bit of old sweatsock, specifically). Sweeter with water, as you might expect (less dried, more candied fruits).

Palate: Very hot – even more than I expected for the ABV. Chocolate and caramel from the nose follow through, as does the honey. A particularly syrupy mouthfeel, which is nice. Leather, with some anise and cinnamon joining the spices from the nose. This “earthiness” reminds me a bit of the Kavalan sherry casks, and may be a sign of the PX finishing – although again, I am not getting a lot of overt PX here. Noticeable bitterness on the the way out, which detracts. Water is a must, which lightens the mouthfeel, tones down the heat, and brings up the caramel and honey. Doesn’t help with the bitterness though.

Finish: Medium. Dark chocolate. Anise. Bitter notes persist to the end. Astringent. With water, I get a touch of the dark fruits making a resurgence.

Yowza, this is a hot one – much more so than most Amruts I’ve tried, even Portonova. Water is a must, but it only does so much. It feels to me like this needed to be aged in a first-fill PX cask. A bit disappointing actually, given all the other cask-strength Amruts I’ve tried to date (e.g., Spectrum batch 1 is outstanding).

Having now looked up the other reviews of this whisky, I find my tasting notes are very consistent. On Reddit, Devoz similarly noted the heat (although he still gave it a very good score). More moderately positive were TOModera and Boyd86, with overall average scores. My own assessment is less positive, and I would score this whisky as slightly below average.

Please see my subsequent reviews of the LCBO and SAQ single cask bottlings.

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